Sharon Pledges To Construct New West Bank Settlements

April 11, 1991|The New York Times

JERUSALEM -- Housing Minister Ariel Sharon said on Wednesday that he intended to continue his efforts to accelerate Jewish settlement in the occupied territories even though Secretary of State James A. Baker III reportedly criticized him over the policy in meetings with Israeli leaders on Tuesday.

``What must be understood is there is no waiting here for any kind of decision`` in the peace process, Sharon said Wednesday morning on army radio. ``This is a continuous activity, going on for years.``

The Housing Ministry is building at least 13,000 new housing units in the occupied territories, where about 120,000 Jewish settlers live alongside more than 1.7 million Palestinians.

The Palestinians see the expansion of Israeli settlements as creeping annexation and would like to have it halted as a precondition for any political negotiations.

The United States and Israel have a longstanding dispute over the continued Israeli settlement of the territories that Israel seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

As Baker left for Cairo on his mission to get Israel and Arab countries into peace negotiations, the mood in Israel was cautiously optimistic.

The Israeli government said on Tuesday for the first time that it was willing in principle to attend a regional peace meeting cosponsored by Washington and Moscow. But there is still no agreement on the structure of such talks and on who will represent the Palestinians.

With peace efforts continuing, Israel on Wednesday released the first group of at least 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who are to be freed over the next week to try to create a more favorable atmosphere for the start of peace negotiations.